Livelihoods and jobs

With an estimated 600 million productive jobs urgently needed over the next decade to sustain growth and maintain social cohesion, jobs and livelihoods have emerged as a key concern in many countries. This is reflected in their aspirations which call for inclusive and sustainable growth that incorporates productive capacities to create employment and livelihoods for the poor and excluded.

UNDP’s livelihoods approach is anchored in the “UN policy on employment creation, income creation and reintegration in post-conflict situations”, which provides a framework for interventions in the short, medium and long term.

Short-term interventions support livelihoods stabilization, ensuring that relief, recovery and development are a continuum. With this approach, UNDP promotes a wide array of livelihood opportunities in cash-for-work schemes in reforestation, agro food processing, rainwater harvesting, high-value crops cultivation, improved agricultural practices and irrigation systems, and skills-building.

Medium-term interventions support local economic recovery for medium- and long-term jobs, productive employment, income generation and development solutions for displacement.

Longer-term interventions support economically and environmentally sustainable livelihoods, medium and long-term employment and inclusive economic growth by establishing the building blocks for countries’ resilience and ability to cope with unavoidable shocks.

To establish strong links between education and employment outcomes, particularly for youth, UNDP provides technical support and capacity-building in the design, expansion and implementation of appropriate skills development and education-to-work transitions. UNDP also promotes entrepreneurship development initiatives such as the provision of training, starting and scaling up of small businesses and support in providing business skills development.